Principal Product Designer, Vertical AI

About the team

We build AI agents that automates and accelerates front office operations work - texting, calling, emailing, and more. Our enterprise-grade conversational agents are integrated into the systems that matter and operate in a human-in-the-loop way that actually works in the real world. Over 100,000 local businesses use Podium today across industries like Automotive, Home Services, Medical, and Retail. We power the communication layer of their front office and are expanding into workflows that directly drive revenue. Our formula is simple: build product quickly, talk to customers, repeat.

About the role

We're hiring a Principal Product Designer to lead design for our AI efforts in the Automotive vertical. This is a senior, high-ownership design role where you'll define user experience strategy, design outcomes, and long-term design vision for how Podium drives revenue in the Auto industry. This isn't a rotational position - you'll own the design of this vertical long-term, building deep expertise in Automotive customer workflows and interface needs.

You'll be responsible for designing intuitive, outcome-driven AI experiences that help Auto dealers make more money. This includes crafting user experiences for high-value agentic workflows, designing experiences across more dealership use cases, and optimizing the interfaces that drive the most revenue. You'll work across our entire product surface - inbox, phones, payments, CRM, integrations, reporting - to create a cohesive, comprehensive experience for the Automotive industry.

While previous Auto industry experience is helpful, it's not required - what matters is your ability to deeply understand user problems, translate them into design solutions, and execute with speed. You'll need to balance strategic design thinking with hands-on craft work, from user journey mapping and wireframes to prototyping and usability testing.

This position is based in Lehi, UT. We may offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Stay close to customers - talk regularly with dealership staff across sales, service, parts, and finance to understand how their workflows function and what success looks like
• Co-own vertical strategy with product - collaborate on where we go deeper, where we expand, and how Podium becomes the leading applied‑AI solution in Auto through user insights and design research
• Own the Auto vertical design - lead design strategy, user experience standards, and design quality for this high‑value segment
• Design AI agent experiences that help the customer - design and ship outcome‑driven agents and interfaces that make complex AI automation feel simple and approachable
• Identify new design opportunities for Auto dealers - research and design new workflows that drive revenue for our Automotive customers
• Work across the company - partner with product, engineering, partnerships, finance, legal, sales, onboarding, and customer success to deliver real experiences
• Roll up your sleeves - be hands‑on with detailed design work, from user research and wireframes to prototyping and testing

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Demonstrate high agency - consistently identifying design opportunities and driving projects forward with minimal oversight or direction
• Have 8-10+ years of product design experience, with emphasis on designing technical products
• Have deep understanding of AI interface design, human-in-the-loop patterns, and designing for complex workflows
• Focus deeply on customer problems, turning real insights into compelling prototypes, design concepts, and demos that win customers

What sets you apart:

• Fluency with AI tools and workflows - you're comfortable "tool stitching" - combining Figma with AI image generators, code assistants, and prototyping tools to accelerate your design process and make ideas real faster
• Experience designing for AI agents, chatbots, or conversational interfaces
• Startup, founding team, or entrepreneurial design experience
• Experience designing for complex user workflows and business software
• Experience leading design for business initiatives beyond just feature development
• Success designing for partner integrations or multi-platform experiences